MORGAN PAGE: You have a long history of exploring the effects of humans on public space and the production of waste. While ‘Trapped’ explores space waste, can you take readers back to the inception of your collaboration and interest in cataloging garbage for art research purposes? Was trash always apart of your artistic collaboration together?

TRES: TRES was formed in 2009, it was always about the obsession for trash. Once you dig your nose into garbage a whole universe explodes: full of information, images, involuntary drawings and maps, to name a few. We noticed that the very narrow relation between these objects and social-public life was a very direct way to understand social behavior, so we have basically been working with waste all these years, and the subject just gets bigger and richer in possibilities. We have always been looking for what humans leave behind, in every sense: physical, emotional, symbolic…

Outside of your 11-year history of collaborating with each other, TRES has participated in and collaborated with artistic venues all over the world. You have been invited to exhibit in Hong Kong, Denmark, Amsterdam, Australia, Cuba, the United States, Mexico, among others. How has your exploration of trash in different parts of the world affected your practice? What have you learned from the garbage left behind in some of the places you’ve been invited to research and exhibit?

There are marvelous and amazing differences and also similarities between waste all over the world. We all consume great amounts of plastic, and every place wastes much food. On the other hand, each place portrays habits and beliefs through what you find in public places. Perhaps Hong Kong was one of the big breaking points in our art-based research. We began exploring very particular objects, cigarette butts, chewing gum, etc. that we found on specific locations. But when we arrived in Hong Kong and explored the beaches, with layers and layers that go deep into the sand of marine debris, we connected the local issues with global ones. As researchers, of course we already knew the global implications of waste—even if we are talking about one single cigarette butt—yet it is completely different to find yourself inhaling toxic plastic fumes, standing on a Styrofoam beach. We then took our practice one step further and started working at a bigger scale.

I find that throughout the span of your collaboration, TRES has consistently produced works that invite viewers and visitors to participate or activate the space you share with them. In fact, I’m not sure I find an exhibit of yours that did not allow for interaction between your work and the viewer. Can you describe your process with regard to viewer participation? Is it something you consider as soon as you begin working on a piece or an environment?

Indeed! We love to involve viewers. To be more precise, we prefer participants than viewers. Our work is very much process-based. Research, dialogue with other disciplines, specialists, workers, artists is fundamental for what we do. So it becomes important to consider this process as part of what we do. Inviting viewers to participate is the way we have found to share the process, and hopefully be contagious with the same passion.

We always seek different levels of engagement with our pieces. From a simple aesthetic contemplation up to a full participation, we try and set the parameters so that each person can choose their path into the work. Sometimes we have had such engagement that some have been invited to actively be part of a project.

TRES has received many accolades, even in its relatively short history; those include the Robert Gardner Fellowship for Photography at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of Harvard University as well as the Pollock-Krasner Artist Grant. Can you describe what effects these funds and institutional support has had on your future projects?

One of the things we are profoundly humbled and grateful for is that these fellowships or grants help make possible projects that otherwise would be difficult to complete considering we are independent artists. Also, we find that most of the time these supports also help or enable present and future dialogues with members or colleagues of those institutions or others in contact with them.

While you have a strong body of work exhibiting and organizing garbage into engaging works of art that challenge viewers to examine their relationship with trash, you had not produced work about garbage outside of earth before ‘Trapped’ at the Juanita Harvey Art Gallery at MSU Texas. Can you describe what led you to space trash?

As we said, we started with global marine debris in Hong Kong, that later took us to Australia. In our research trip regarding ocean currents, we understood the implications of plastic in the deep sea. We were fascinated with how little explored it really is. While in Australia we visited the Observatory (Gravity Discovery Center) at Yanchep, Wastern Australia, that has a piece of space debris. That was one of our initial contacts with the subject. Also, in general we receive newsletters and emails from friends and colleagues about all types of waste. This also helps ignite imagination.

The ‘Trapped’ exhibition allowed for a strong collaboration between you and graphic design students at the university. The students that were assigned to be design team leaders described the experience as “life changing” and all said they “learned so much from working with you, not simply about design but about research as artistic practice”. Can you describe your experience working with the students and other student collaborations you have participated in at other galleries?

One of the practices we try to develop, again because our practice is so process based and because we believe in the power of art-based research, is to instigate participation in different levels. Project-based workshops have often been amazing for a more profound and meaningful participation. We absolutely love the interaction with students, their intake and points of view are always fresh and diverse. We have had many, among them one in Grand Junction, Colorado (Mesa University) and (trans)formaciones residuales in Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana. (trans)formaciones residuales was planned as a curatorial lab that lasted one year of research, group discussions, exhibit design and mediations.

Can you talk about what you are working on now? How has the Covid-19 pandemic influenced or affected your work?

We are working on a new project inspired on Covid-19 ‘s use of soap. We are asking all (all over the world) to save their pandemic soap scraps for us. First to send a photo of the scrap with name, date and place. After we will collect all the pieces as to make a map-sculpture of this very particular residue. We choose soap because of its paradoxical condition: it protects us, but is a weapon of massive destruction for microorganisms. So all collaboration is still welcome!